Charley is a potted plant of the species Cordyline stricta (also known as the Slender Palm Lily or Narrow-leaved Palm Lily) that has been in the Wright Anything Agency ever since the agency's founding by Mia Fey as the law office, Fey & Co. Law Offices. Mia loved the plant, even giving it its name, and going as far as to make it the firm's official mascot. After Mia's death, her student, Phoenix Wright, inherited the offices and left it about the same as it was in Mia's time, including keeping and taking care of Charley. However, Wright did not find out about the name until a month later, when Mia Fey's sister Maya Feychanneled Mia and it came up in a conversation between the two.

Charley has been subjected to Maya Fey's overenthusiastic watering, which has resulted in the plant looking a little "swollen" and has led Wright to wonder if Maya was perfecting her water torture technique on the defenseless plant. Ema Skye's well-meaning attempts to improve Charley with an unknown additive resulted in the plant appearing a little yellow. Despite these unintentional attempts on its life, Charley has seen the office it resides in through Wright's entire career and even after Wright was disbarred and then reinstated. Wright has been occasionally caught staring at Charley and smiling by Athena Cykes, but he doesn't talk much about Charley with his subordinates.

The presence of Charley has shown an unexpected botanical knowledge in Dick Gumshoe, who quickly chipped in with the plant's scientific name while Wright was trying to identify it the day after Mia's murder.